Cate Reilly, Retrieval. The Pantanal, Brazil, September 2025 (SINGLE SHOT 2025)

The ruling matriarch of the Pantanal Norte, named Patricia by the local biologists, and her cub known as Makala, retrieve the body of a Yacaré caiman (Caiman yacare) from the Corixo Negro. A couple of days before, near the mouth of the Rio Piquirí, we’d seen a black vulture (Coragyps atratus) trying to balance on the floating corpse of a caiman as it tried to feed. The caiman was likely killed by a boat strike, then washed into the Corixo Negro, where Patricia and Makala later retrieved it.

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